Automatic table generation

Question

I am working on a book that includes word-to-word translations that need to be put in a table. The format of the average page looks like this:

1. Regular paragraph text.
2. Verse.
3. Translation section.
4. Regular Paragraph text.

The following picture illustrates this format:

My question is about section 3.

I would like to put word-by-word translations of the verse in a table with two columns - One for the word and one for the meaning/translation. This section/paragraph itself must flow into two columns. Optionally it must support it's own footnote that appears at the end of the second column.

Ideally I would like something like this:

\begin{mytable}
    \entry[Word]Meaning
    \entry[Apple]Apple is a fruit
    \entry[Banana]Banana is also a fruit
    \entry[Cat]Cat is an mammal\myfootnote{A mammal is an animal}.
\end{mytable}

The mytable macro should create a 2-column table that itself flows into two columns on the page. Optionally the myfootnote function creates a footnote at the end of the second column. When typeset, the two columns should be of same height.

When encountering a page-break, the order of entries on each pages must be preserved in the flow. Thus a table with 10 entries when split should result in:

Entry1    Entry4
Entry2    Entry5
Entry3    Footnote for Entry 2
----PAGE BREAK----
Entry 6   Entry 9
Entry 7   Entry 10
Entry 8   Footnote for Entry 9

Answer 1

I'm not sure, but do you mean something like this?

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{multicol}

\newcommand\entry[2]{\par#1~---~#2\par}
\newcommand\myfootnote[1]{%
\stepcounter{mpfootnote}%
\footnotemark[\value{mpfootnote}]%
\edef\tmp{\toks0\par\noexpand\footnotemark[\the\value{mpfootnote}]}%
\toks0\expandafter{\the\tmp#1\par}}

\begin{document}

\noindent blah \dotfill blah \dotfill blah\\
blahlah \dotfill blah \dotfill blah


\begin{multicols}{2}\setlength\parindent{0pt}
    \entry{Word}{Meaning}
    \entry{Woord}{Meeaning\myfootnote{my spelling is poor}}
    \entry{Apple}{Apple is a fruit}
    \entry{Worrrd}{Meannnning}
    \entry{Wordddd}{More meaning}
    \entry{Banana}{Banana is also a fruit}
    \entry{Bananana}{Bananaanana is also a fruit}
    \entry{Banana}{Banana is also a fruit}
    \entry{Cat}{Cat is an mammal\myfootnote{A mammal is an animal}}
\the\toks0\relax
\end{multicols}

\noindent blah \dotfill blah \dotfill blah\\
blahlah \dotfill blah \dotfill blah

\noindent blah \dotfill blah \dotfill blah\\
blahlah \dotfill blah \dotfill blah

\end{document}

Answer 2

Drawing on David Carlisle's multicol idea, I suggest creating an environment to set up the translation, and a command to put each word-gloss pair in tabular alignment. The footnote package allows footnotes from inside the tabular.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{multicol,footnote}

\newenvironment{translation}
    {\par\begin{multicols}{2}\setlength\parindent{0pt}}
    {\end{multicols}}
\makesavenoteenv{translation}   % allows footnotes in tabular

% Set width of tabular columns
\newcommand{\gloss}[2]{%
    \begin{tabular}{p{0.22\linewidth} c p{0.22\linewidth}}
    #1 & --- & #2\\ 
    \end{tabular}\newline%
    }
\usepackage{lipsum}

\begin{document}
\lipsum[1]

\begin{translation}
\gloss{Pollo}{Chicken}
\gloss{Burrito}{Burrito}
\gloss{Grande}{Big}
\gloss{Cerveza}{Beer}
\gloss{Alegre}{Happy}
\gloss{Cansado}{Tired%
    \footnote{\lipsum[10]}%
    }
\end{translation}

\lipsum[2]
\end{document}